In a blog post for New York's Daily News, The Root's contributing editor David Swerdlick says that Mitt Romney's running mate "has stuck his hand in the cookie jar, but he wants you to think that Obama's the cookie monster.'

Out on the campaign trail Monday, Mitt Romney said that "It's radical and extreme to pass on trillions of dollars of debt to our children."

But although he was talking about President Obama, he could have easily been referring to the congressional voting record of his new running mate — House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan — who, as I wrote Saturday, "voted to fund the priciest programs during the Bush era, then abruptly found fiscal religion during the Obama era."

The question is, does Romney think that Ryan's record is "radical and extreme," too?

As Politico reported yesterday, during his time in the Congress, Ryan voted for two of President George W. Bush's costliest initiatives: the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit — estimated to cost more than $700 billion over 12 years — and the invasion of Iraq, costing taxpayers more than $800 billion. He also voted for the auto bailout, the bank bailout and even the highway bill that included the infamous "bridge to nowhere."

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David Swerdlick is an associate editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.